News Article

TerraE Takes Important Step to Open European Cell Factory

DRESDEN, Germany – The consortium of 17 companies and research institutes called TerraE Holding founded a subsidiary TerraE Engineering to take the next step in the foundation of a European battery cell factory.

A team of engineers at TerraE Engineering will take over the planning activities for all future lithium-ion cell production factories within the TerraE group. The team’s work includes site location evaluation, factory planning, supply chain management, industrialization, and research and development. Dresden was selected as the location to base the subsidiary.

Location of the production

“We are glad to start the activities in TerraE Engineering GmbH as a way to expand the infrastructure and technologies planning team for cell production”, explains Holger Gritzka, CEO of TerraE Holding GmbH. Dresden is an ideal location, since we can find experience engineers and specialists there. In parallel meetings are being held with various interested state governments about the location of the production sites, so we can take the decision soon.”

Vital importance

BMZ as one of the participants in the consortium TerraE recently pointed out the importance of European lithium ion cell production in Bike Europe. “The production of lithium ion cells up and running as quickly as possible in Germany is of vital importance for being able to keep delivering complete battery packs to e-bike manufacturers. In particular now that the demand for ‘mobile’ products and with that for batteries is exploding,” said BMZ CEO Sven Bauer of Europe’s biggest battery maker.

Large-scale lithium-ion cell production

TerraE Holding GmbH is planning large-scale lithium-ion cell production at two locations in Germany, and to have a total capacity of 34 GWh by 2028. The factories will be operated as ‘foundries,’ meaning that TerraE Holding GmbH will build and operate the factories, where customers can have lithium ion cells produced to their specifications. In addition, TerraE will also offer its own standard cell products.

TerraE Holding GmbH was founded in May of 2017, after six member companies in the KLIB (Lithium Ion Battery Competence Network) formed an initiative to establish large-scale series manufacturing.